How to prevent bad marketing—3 simple ways to ensure campaign success

What brands can learn from planning a party.

Dec 9, 2022 - 21:02

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How to prevent bad marketing—3 simple ways to ensure campaign success

I am an expert at bad marketing.

While I’ve developed many successful campaigns in 25 years in advertising, I’ve seen plenty of startups make poor marketing decisions, some over and over.

Why? Because they don’t really know who they are as a company, what sets them apart from others or the value they bring customers. Crucially, they don’t understand how to articulate what makes them special and vital.

At the end of the day, they’re just not ready for marketing—which is not only about buying an ad or creating a standout logo or website.

To make your business marketing ready, start by asking some key questions:

Does your company have a clear mission and vision?

Do you and your employees know why you get out of bed in the morning and do your job?

Do you have a business plan—a clear roadmap of what goals you want to accomplish as a company?

You probably answered yes to all three of these, which means you’re off to the right start! Let’s get to the hard part:

Are you strategically ready? Do you have clear, prioritized goals? How will you measure success?

Are you brand-ready? Do you know what your value proposition is? What makes you different from your competitors?

Why should consumers choose you? (No, the correct answer is not “Because we’re the best.” Everyone thinks they’re the best.)

My favorite question: Are you budget-ready? Because for clients there can be so much confusion about what the right budget is.

It’s baffling how companies know exactly how much they spend on every single item of their balance sheet—salaries, overhead—but somehow marketing expenses are a mystery. Or worse, marketing is viewed as an expense rather than an investment.

Consumers today are empowered with technology to make buying decisions faster and easier. They’re reading and listening to what people have to say about you—whether you like it or not. There’s more diversity both culturally and generationally, so the market is more fragmented. And trends in marketing have an average 32-month life span.

So how do we keep up and not make bad marketing decisions? It’s all in the planning.

I had a client who, in an analogy about building his startup, put it this way: “How can I throw the best party if I don’t plan it first?” So, you need a plan, and any agency you select needs parameters for the best party ever.

Start with the theme, or brand promise, that sets you apart from anyone else. Decide your guest list, or audience. Stock up with goodies, the brilliant ideas, brilliantly executed, that keep your audience coming back to the snack table. And when your party launches, make sure you’ve worked out all of the logistics so that your campaigns take off without a hitch. Now you play the perfect host, and make sure your guests have the best time ever—and tell the world they did.

Want to turn bad marketing into badass marketing? Remember these three steps:

Start at the beginning

You need to align your business, branding and marketing strategies—not only when you’re just starting with your business plan, but after a yearly check-in. Let’s face it: Providing great products and services is wonderful, but customers must know those products and services exist. David Ogilvy always said, “If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope have you being able to advertise anything else?”